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The U.S. Empire’s Achilles Heel: Its Barbaric Racism

Submitted by Glen Ford on Wed, 03/14/2012 - 01:42

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

American racism will always cripple its ability to occupy non-white countries, whose people the U.S. fundamentally disrespects. “The United States cannot help but be a serial abuser of the rights of the people it occupies, especially those who are thought of as non-white, because it is a thoroughly racist nation.” The latest atrocities in Afghanistan are just par for the course.

The U.S. Empire’s Achilles Heel: Its Barbaric Racism

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“What people would agree to allow such armed savages to remain in their country if given a choice?”

The American atrocities in Afghanistan roll on like a drumbeat from hell. With every affront to the human and national dignity of the Afghan people, the corporate media feign shock and quickly conclude that a few bad apples are responsible for U.S. crimes, that it’s all a mistake and misunderstanding, rather than the logical result of a larger crime: America’s attempt to dominate the world by force. But even so, with the highest paid and best trained military in the world – a force equipped with the weapons and communications gear to exercise the highest standards of control known to any military in history – one would think that commanders could keep their troops from making videos of urinating on dead men, or burning holy books, or letting loose homicidal maniacs on helpless villagers.

These three latest atrocities have brought the U.S. occupation the point of crisis – hopefully, a terminal one. But the whole war has been one atrocity after another, from the very beginning, when the high-tech superpower demonstrated the uncanny ability to track down and incinerate whole Afghan wedding parties – not just once, but repeatedly. Quite clearly, to the Americans, these people have never been more than ants on the ground, to be exterminated at will.

The Afghans, including those on the U.S. payroll, repeatedly use the word “disrespect” to describe American behavior. But honest people back here in the belly of the beast know that the more accurate term is racism. The United States cannot help but be a serial abuser of the rights of the people it occupies, especially those who are thought of as non-white, because it is a thoroughly racist nation. A superpower military allows them to act out this characteristic with impunity.

“The whole war has been one atrocity after another, from the very beginning.”

American racism allows its citizens to imagine that they are doing the people of Pakistan a favor, by sending drones to deal death without warning from the skies. The U.S. calls Pakistan an ally, when polls consistently show that its people harbor more hatred and fear of the U.S. than any other people in the world. The Pakistanis know the U.S. long propped up their military dictators, and then threatened to blow the country to Kingdom Come after 9/ll, if the U.S. military wasn’t given free rein. They know they are viewed collectively as less than human by the powers in Washington – and, if they don’t call it racism, we should, because we know our fellow Americans very well.

The U.S. lost any hope of leaving a residual military force in Iraq when it showed the utterly racist disrespect of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison, the savage leveling of Fallujah, the massacres in Haditha and so many other places well known to Iraqis, if not the American public, and the slaughter of 17 civilians stuck at a traffic circle in Nisour Square, Baghdad. What people would agree to allow such armed savages to remain in their country if given a choice?

The United States was conceived as an empire built on the labor of Blacks and the land of dead natives, an ever-expanding sphere of exploitation and plunder – energized by an abiding and general racism that is, itself, the main obstacle to establishing a lasting American anti-war movement. But, despite the peace movement’s weaknesses, the people of a world under siege by the Americans will in due time kick them out – because to live under barbarian racists is not a human option.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

Joe Lieberman IS WHITE, as is Carl Levin, Billy Kristol, Paul Wolofowitz, Larry Summers, Henry 'Heinz' Kissinger, [who dominated US foreign policy under the Nixon / Ford regimes - {Interesting that Watergate took down all the main players in the Nixon White-House but didn't even touch Kissinger], etc, etc... And what about the father of modern political Zionism Theodor Hertzl - was he of African, Asian or Oriental heritage?? Or perhaps Native American, Native Australian or Latin American Heritage?? According to Wikipedia he was from an area that today is called Serbia / Austria / Hungary... I think those places are in Europe. Hertzl has also been described as a so-called 'non-practicing' Jew, some even say he was actually an atheist- Wikipedia says: 'Hertzl exhibited a secularist disdain toward religion... [IE: Judaism- Which begs the question how can someone be both a Jew & atheist at the same time?].

The US is projected to cease being a demographically white majority society by the mid 21st [IE: current] century.

Israel became the dominate center-piece of US Mid-policy after Nov 22nd 1963- as indicated by the significance of USS Liberty incident of June 1967.

On a different note this article by Bro Glan Ford was also posted at the alternative 'progressive' web-site Common Dreams. Some of the reactions by commentors there is telling. It began w some guy called 'RWaller' claiming that Bro Ford was playing the so-called 'Race-Card' [a term popularized by OJ's 'dream-team' lawyer Rob Shapiro {who so happens to be a white Jew}- against 'fellow' OJ lawyer the Late Johnnie Cochrane]. This veiw was also express by several others @ CD- although to be fair- most seemed to disagree w that characterization of Bro Ford's article. But it's interesting to see how some white so-called 'liberals' can get real 'defensive' when you factually talk about the US Empire's on-going racist & genocidal history [that's why some have pushed the phony term 'Post-Racial' era after the election of Obama].

"But it's interesting to see how some white so-called 'liberals' can get real 'defensive' when you factually talk about the US Empire's on-going racist & genocidal history"

Absolutely correct. They ascribe to a wholly fictional view of America because to consider the reality of its history and current actions mean admitting that the U.S.A. is a P.O.S. (piece of shit) and always has been. Liberals are a huge part of the problem. They represent not genuine progressive voices but just the other side of the coin of the American bourgeois elite's bait-and-switch political game, the "good cop" side with the Repubs being the "bad cop" end of it when anyone who has ever had any run-ins with police pigs can tell you the "good" and "bad" cops are both working for the same team. Same with American politics. The Repubs bang on the table and scream and yell and try to intimidate whereas the Dems act conciliatory and feign empathy, pretending that if we do what they say they will save us from the wrath of the bad cop. At the end of the day they're both just pigs.

The Dems represent the faction within the billionaire ruling elite that sees that periodically, typically in times of economic distress or upheaval, the elite needs to make concessions to the rest of us in order to avert something (to them) much worse from happening, the end of their capitalist gravy train. Hence the New Deal policies of FDR and the Great Society policies under LBJ. Scraps thrown to the masses to keep us from grabbing the pitchforks and torches, nothing more. They think more in terms of long-term preservation of the (exploitative, one-sided) social order rather than short-term gain.

The Repubs on the other hand are the other faction of the ruling class that basically says "To hell with trying to appease them, let's just exploit the shit out of them as much as possible because we can", favoring short-term greed over long-term stability. When this is the best that American politics can offer (and truly this false choice is the best it has ever offered, nothing beyond that) nobody with any sense can claim that this country has anything resembling a genuinely representative democracy. It is a plutocracy with a very thin, very hamhanded and unconvincing veneer of democracy.

The U.S. is principally a white, racist empire whose benefits flow exclusively to its bourgeoisie. That bourgeois class contains some African-Americans, some Jewish people etc. but is predominantly white and non-Jewish. Its racism however, and I am not belittling it by any means, is more of a symptom of its overall sickness rather than a motivating factor. Its cancer is capitalism. Racism is a tool to divide the laboring masses against one another and keep us from stringing up the real enemy, the wealthy elite that runs this country.

On CNN today there were interviews with Afghans living in the same village that (most of) the 16 massacred civilians were killed in and the villagers were adamant that it was not one man who did this but several. They even said that they saw multiple sets of bootprints leading from the village into a nearby wheatfield.

So somebody's lying, either the Afghans or the U.S. military. I am much more inclined to believe the Afghan villagers than the U.S. military which we all know has a proven track record of lying about most everything. Remember this is the same military that claimed that Abu Ghraib was the responsibility of a few bad apples instead of it being established policy. The same military that dreamed up the Jessica Lynch fantasy and the Pat Tillman fable. The same military that came up with four different conflicting timelines for its actions on 9/11. The same military that most every time a helicopter is shot down comes out with the same tired old story, "Oh no, it wasn't shot down or anything... it just suffered mechanical problems but we assure you that no enemy fire was involved." The U.S. military is like that kid on the school bus who claims he has an uncle that was an astronaut, a grandfather who was a fighter ace, that his dad invented the Clapper etc. Everyone just rolls their eyes and knows he's lying. Same with the U.S. military. Anyone with common sense who has been paying attention knows that the truth is usually the polar opposite of what the military's story is. If the Pentagon says it's raining outside you'd damn well better take a look out the window for yourself before grabbing your raincoat.

Also notice how quickly they whisked the accused soldier out of Afghanistan. And that his family is in "protective custody" at a military base. More like being held hostage by the U.S. military to ensure that this prick doesn't say anything besides "I'm a crazy nutbag that killed 16 people all by myself."

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